Fire Quinito rounds up all the essential links from the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey snoozefest so you could have more time to read the latest on Katrina Halili’s case against Hayden Kho.



Gabriel Montoya, Max Boxing: “Pacquiao came out as usual, all energy and aggression. He slid left and right, in and out, looking for an opening and commencing to create them with jabs to the head and the tiny opening between Clottey’s elbows, that were held up seemingly all night in a shell defense. Pacquiao marked his territory on Clottey early. A right hook around the guard to the head. Left lead or right jab to the stomach. Right hook to the body. Over and over, Pacquiao threw combinations up and down at Clottey, who could only cover up, move forward, and take abuse as he bided his time waiting for Buddha-knows-what.”

Toff Rada, Better Late than Never: “For all intents and purposes, the ‘Event’ between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey ended at the 1:37 mark of the fourth round. It was at this point when Pacquiao unleashed a two-fisted punch, reminiscent of the legendary Filipino action star Fernando Poe Jr. Years from now, after the PacMan has been enshrined in the Boxing Hall of Fame, and Clottey largely forgotten, people will remember this bout solely because of this punch. It could even evolve into boxing's version of a ‘finishing move’, something that when you see, you know the fight's over. In basketball, this would have been the equivalent of leaping over your opponent for a dunk, or grabbing the ball midway through the shot for a block.”

Michael Rosenthal, The Ring: “Manny Pacquiao can’t look spectacular against an opponent who refuses to fight. Joshua Clottey curled up like a frightened armadillo and barely threw enough punches to win a round Saturday night at the new Cowboys Stadium. The tireless Filipino was at his most active, trying to break down the bigger man, but he couldn’t do serious damage without openings.”

Greg Bishop, New York Times: “The question lingered. When would Clottey let his hands go and unleash his superior strength and size? When would he, you know, fight?”

Bryan Armen Graham, Sports Illustrated: “Make no mistake: Clottey is one of the world's elite welterweights. This wasn't Oscar De La Hoya, a faded legend who'd outgrown the 147-pound division. It wasn't Miguel Cotto, who fought Pacquiao at a catch-weight of 145. Clottey is a full-sized welterweight with significant height and reach advantages who likely outweighed Pacquiao by 15 pounds. And the tough-as-nails Ghanian couldn't even win a round (according to two of the three judges). Pacquiao's fight plan to attack the body -- he landed a career-high 108 body shots -- was executed to perfection against stubborn opposition. ‘This is the first time I have lost a fight,’ Clottey said. ‘All my fights I lost, I never thought I lost.’”

Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times: “Final punch stats by the Compubox people, who and probably went home with cramped fingers, had Pacquiao throwing a total of 1,271 punches, to Clottey's 399. The main consolation for the fans was that they could tell their grandchildren someday that they spent an evening in a new palace of an arena, watching a short, stumpy man trying to chop down a tree, which didn't fall.”

So the big news over the weekend involved pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao moving on from all the drama of his aborted mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather. After Pacquiao rejected a proposed bout against junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman, his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank announced that the boxer will instead face tough welterweight contender Joshua Clottey.

Clottey last outing was a razor-thin split decision against Miguel Cotto, a bout Clottey dominated in the latter rounds. The Ghanaian is renowned for his toughness, having never been knocked down in his career never been seriously hurt in his career (he was actually knocked down in the Cotto fight), and would certainly present a unique challenge for Pacquiao. Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook is already salivating over the prospect of the bout: “Clottey is a rock-solid welterweight who has never been stopped, and I don't even recall off the top of my head ever thinking he seemed particularly hurt. He's faced a lot of different styles and done pretty well against them all, from the tall and powerful Antonio Margario to the cunning and savvy Miguel Cotto to fast southpaw Zab Judah. None of those guys are Manny Pacquiao, but Manny Pacquiao's never faced a guy quite like Clottey, either, whose defense can be impenetrable at times. Not exactly the loose counter-punching of Juan Manuel Marquez or the bull-forward style of Ricky Hatton.” At least one blogger thinks that this will be Pacquiao’s biggest challenge yet.

Arum, meanwhile, scored another coup after coming to terms with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to hold the fight in the $1.2-billion state-of-the-art Cowboy Stadium, a possibility nixed by Mayweather’s camp. Arum was schmoozing with Jones on the same night that VIPs such as George W. Bush were hanging out at the owner’s luxury suite during the Cowboys’ playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. The new facility will also be playing host to the NBA All-Star Weekend in February.

(By the way, Arum says Dubya is a big Pacquiao fan. Pacquiao’s Nacionalista Party colleagues Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza must be thrilled. First Bongbong Marcos, now this. Who’s next, Hitler?)

Not to be left out, Mayweather’s promoter, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy, also made noises about moving on as well. According to him, “Pretty Boy Floyd” is looking at a May date with Shane Mosley, to “shut up all those who are saying he's a coward.” This, of course, would still depend on a Mosley victory in his January 30 bout against Andre Berto, which is hardly a given.

These are fighting words from Mayweather’s promoter, and it remains to be seen if Mayweather will come through. The boxer has frustrated fans of the sport for ducking the best competition at the welterweight level over the last few years, skipping bouts against the likes of Mosley, Cotto, Clottey, and Margarito, to preserve his undefeated record. Will Floyd really put his record on the line against a dangerous opponent, or will he take on a scrub like Matthew Hatton or Paulie Malignaggi?

It should be noted that a late spring bout for Mayweather would still leave a fall bout between him and Pacquiao open, should the two parties opt to revisit the mega-fight. But with potentially dangerous opponents (definitely for Pacquiao), neither boxer could really afford to look that far ahead.

UPDATE: Dan Rafael of ESPN reports that it looks like Mayweather will keep the March 13 date too, to go head-to-head with Pacquiao. Bad Left Hook details why this is an awful idea, because of the lack of quality opposition for Mayweather if he does not fight the winner of Mosely-Berto.

Going back to my running theme of how awesome it would be if great Filipino writers started writing more about sports, GMANews.tv editor-in-chief Howie Severino (a friend of this blog, incidentally) penned a thought-provoking piece about violence in boxing, in the context of Manny Pacquiao’s bloody victory over Miguel Cotto, and Z Gorres’ brain injury. Howie points out that while adulation for Pacquiao in the country after his win is universal, there still remains rightful ambivalence about the brutal nature of the sport.

While I mostly agree with most of the points that Howie raised, I would offer the following addenda: first, Cotto is known to be a bleeder, so his bloodied face might have looked worse than it really was; and second, Cotto is a world-class fighter who knows how to protect himself in the ring, and if he is unable to do so, then his corner should do it for him. Cotto’s corner, unfortunately, did not do enough on the second point, leaving their fighter in a terribly precarious situation in the latter rounds against Pacquiao. Cotto’s father already wanted the fight to stop, but the welterweight champion wanted to keep going.

I do wonder though if the real danger for boxers is that more often than not, no one saves them from themselves. Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, readily admits that his condition was brought about by the fact that he had one too many fights, carrying on when he clearly should’ve stopped.

Even perhaps the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, was not spared of the fate. Recently, an ESPN documentary was broadcast in the United States detailing Ali’s final fight against then up-and-coming champion Larry Holmes. Ali at the time was way past his prime, but he still believed that he had what it takes to beat Holmes. The result was a one-sided beatdown so brutal that people who were there are still traumatized by the experience. Ali’s doctors, meanwhile, still argue that Ali should never have been allowed to step into the ring. Today Ali, like Roach, suffers from the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease.

Boxers generally boast of a toughness not found in any other athlete in the world; indeed, it takes a special kind of bravado to keep going while you’re getting hit in the face. Unfortunately, for a lot of boxers, the bravado remains long after the punching power, the foot speed, and the reflexes have abandoned them. But they look in the mirror and they think they still have what it takes.

I’d love to see Pacquiao fight Mayweather, I really do. But I wouldn’t mind either if he retired right now. At the very least, he’d be able to do something a lot of other boxers have not had the strength to do: walk away with everything intact.

Miguel Cotto knew that when he signed on to fight Manny Pacquiao, he was getting into what was essentially the boxing equivalent of a brutal knife fight. Cotto made sure to bring his knife when he walked into the ring.

The only problem was, Pacquiao decided to bring a chainsaw instead.

Read the rest of my post-fight column at Yahoo's Ringside with Manny